Coal-pocket.



PATENTED APR. 3

P. K. HOOVER & ApJ. MASON.

GOAL POCKET. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 29, 190m entire height 0 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFioE.

FRANK K. HOOVER AND ARTHUR J. MASON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

GOAL-POCKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 3, 1906.

Application filed January 29,1906. Serial 110.2%,542.

To all whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that we, FRANK K. HOOVER and ARTHUR J. MASON, citizens of the United Pockets, of which the fo owing is a specification.

Our resent invention relates to coal pockets or op ers such as are extensively employed at ocks and wharves for the temporary storage of large quantities of coal, such hoppers storin the coal as it is received from the mines an delivering it to vessels and other carriers as required. A great drawback to the use of extensivepockets for this purpose, especially when employed for the storage of soft or bituminous coal, lies in the. loss due to the breakage and pulverization of the coal in depositing the same within the pocket, since the coal is elevated to the to of the pocket and at that point dumped into the pocket, which latter is frequently of great eight, thus necessarilyproducin a long fall, resulting in a large percentage of reakage.

The object of our present invention is to produce a coal pocket or hopper of this type which may be of great height, but capable of being loaded without damage to the coal.

To this end our invention consists, essentially, of a coal pocket or hopper having the load-receiving side .thereof formed with louver-openin s extending, preferably, the said side wall, in combination with a lifting-car dump or e uivalent means for raising successive loads 0 coal to a height substantially opposite the level of the rear edge of the bottom wall of the pocket or of the coal previously deposited in the ocket anddischarging the load through the ouver opening or openin s directly above the same. A simple form of a paratus serving to illustrate the principle 0 our invention is shown in the accompanyin drawing,which is a side elevational view with the pocket itself in vertical section.

' Referring to the drawing, 1 may designate a dock or wharf on which is erected a coal pocket orhopper, (designated as an entirety y 2.) The bottom wall 3" of the pocket is preferabl inclined downwardly toward the water si e, and the front wall 4 has a discharge-openin 5 at its lower end that is preferab y served y a discharging-roller 6, serving to deliver the coal into a vessel or barge 7.

The coal-discharging means preferably takes the form illustrated in Letters Patent No. 702,731, June 17, 1902. The rear wall of the pocket is formed b avertical series of inclined louver-boar s 8, suitably spaced to form between them louver-0 enings 9.

In rear of the ocket is s own a conventional form of lifting-car dump comprising' a vertical uideway 10, containing a car-lift 11, around t e ends of which are passed liftingcables 12, carried over supporting-sheaves 13 on opposite sides of the upper end of the guideway, and thence carried down and around suitably-controlled winding-drums 14 and 15 on a winding-shaft 16, operated by a motor, (conventionally illustrated at 17,) it being understood that the drums I4 and 15 are provided with independent clutch devices, (conventionally illustrated at 14 and 15, respectively,) whereby either may be rotated independently or both to ether, and with suitable detent devices, (in icated at 14* and 15', respectively,) whereby said drums may be restrained from unwinding when disconnected from the operating-shaft 16. Within the car-lift 11 is a short section of track (indicated at 18) on which may be run in the usual manner a loaded coal-car, (designated by 19.) The car or the louvered side of the pocket, or both, are rovided with means whereby when the car is overturned the load may be su ported and guided into one or more of the ouver-openings opposite the point at which the car-lift has been'raised. For this pur ose one side wall of the car may be provide with a contractible and expansible extension, (indicated at 20,) which when expanded will span the space from the lower edge of the car to the louvered side of the pocket, as indicated.

In operation, assuming that the ocket is empty and that a loaded car has een run onto the lift 11, the drums 14 and 15 are simultaneously operated to wind up the cables 12, thereby raising the lift to substantially the height indicated at 11. Thereupon, the drum 15 being stopped, the drum 14 is continued in operation sufficiently to tilt the lift to the dumping position indicated, the expansible 'side 20 being at the same time run out, so as to rest upon the uplperend of the pocket-floor 3, whereupon t e coal readily discharges itself into the pocket through the lowermost louver-opening 9. The lift having then been dropped, another loaded car is run in and o erated in the same way. As the level of t e coal rises in the pocket the ITO lift is raised successively higher and higher, so as to discharge the successive loads through louver-openings substantially opposite the level of the coal previously received in the pocket, the lift being elevated to substantially its highest oint (indicated at 11*) in completing the hlling of the pocket. The louver- 0 enings 9, While permitting the free sliding out the coal into the pocket, prevent its egress therefrom as the pile rises in the pocket in a manner Well understood.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the main object of the im ention, which is to avoid damage to the coal through breakage of the same byreason ofa long drop in depositing the same into the pocket, is accomplished. Our invention is not concerned with any par ticular form of dumping coal-lift orother means of elevating the coal, so long as the essential feature of a receiving-pocket having a louvered side through Which the coal may be received Without dropping the same from a height is preserved- While we have described the apparatus as a coal-pocket and contemplate that such will be its principal application, yet it is evident that the. same apparatus might advantageously be employed in connection with any other more or less frangible material capable of injury by being dropped into the pocket from its upper end.

l r l i 1. The combination with a pocket having a louvered side, of rneans'ior introducing 1na--. terial to be stored therein thereto through the louver-openings, substantially as described.

The combination with a pocket having a louvered side, of a lifting-car dump located opposite said louvered side and serving to discharge material to be stored into said pocket through the louver-openings, substantially as described 3. The combination with a pocket having a. louvered side, of a vertical guideway located behind said louvered side, a car-lift therein, and means i'or elevating said car-lift and dumping the same opposite and into any of the louveropenings, substantially as described.

l. The combination with a pocket having discharging means in its front Wall and a louvered rear wall, of a vertical guideway 10- oa-ted behind said rear Wall, a car-lift therein, and means for elevating said car-lift and duni )ing the same opposite and into any of the Oliver-openings, substantially as de scribed.

FEAR K K. HOOVER. ARTHUR J. MASON. l/Vitnesses:

SAMUEL N. Porn), C. A. lmNroN. 

